Through a friend interpreting for her, Yahaira Rosado, who lives on Cambridge Street, said she heard what sounded like a motorbike or ATV, then noticed the sound stopped abruptly. She said the trains going by then stopped abruptly, which she noted was unusual. Another woman who said she lives nearby also noticed the sounds of the motorbike and the trains stopping.

The last time someone on the tracks in the neighborhood was struck and killed was in August 2010, when a 19-year-old man was struck behind the Price Chopper parking lot at 50 Cambridge St.

Police officers and detectives stayed at the scene for more than an hour.